Flying the flag for football as it should be played

The decline of hinterland football

YOU CAN TAKE the boy out of Thurrock, but you cannot take Thurrock out of the boy. I’m used to Essex, the county of my birth, being denigrated as a tasteless place full of aggressive people, indeed I have witnessed those qualities myself, but I cannot help feeling a little saddened by the decline of Thurrock football.

Thurrock was an area that rose under Margaret Thatcher as a bastion of working class aspiration. The people were mostly at the lower end of those lists created by socio-economists, but they refused to be subdued by it. It was the land of the sovereign ring, the digital watch, the fast car, the fake tan and the lager top. When I started working in the City of London, people from Thurrock – myself included – were derided as “Essex cheap labour.”

Social commentators, along the lines of the pseudish Jonathan Meades, would tell you that when Thurrock man made money, he flaunted it – characterised by the strategic planting of stone lions on his driveway, feverish acquisition of personal number plates and an over-reliance of branded personal effects such as Burberry raincoats and LV luggage. Essex man had cash wadded-up in his back pocket and he had his own dialect – estuarine English. There, that’s all the stereotyping out of the way.

Essex represented the new breed of football man

As for football, Thurrock has non-league clubs in abundance: Aveley, East Thurrock United (a Johnny- come-lately club), Grays, Purfleet (another arriviste) and Tilbury. Outside of Thurrock, you have Canvey Island (the old land of the Kings), Billericay Town and Hornchurch (another past tale of excess). It wasn’t quite the North East hotbed, but Essex, in the late 1980s and 1990s, represented the new breed of football man – brash, loaded and not afraid of testing the accepted ideals of the Corinthian. The establishment non-league clubs didn’t take too kindly to Essex man making good on the football field.

It should come as no surprise that Thurrock is tailor-made for football. It’s on the fringes of Greater London – despite some people tagging Thurrock as the “east end”, Greater London ends at Havering. That’s not to say that Thurrock isn’t full of folk that have come out of “the old East End” or at least had grandparents from places like Bromley-by-Bow, Poplar, the old docklands and Stepney. South Ockendon, for example, had a huge estate built in 1969 that housed the London refugees, and it was popularly called “the GLC estate”.

There’s a large contingent of West Ham, Tottenham and Arsenal fans along the Thames. It was always a stronghold of Hammers’ support – Geoff Pike, who played almost 400 games for West Ham, was a pupil at our school. The Upminster to Barking train was always full of people going to home games at Upton Park. Doubtless it still is today.

The public allegiance to London clubs (and, by the way, Southend United is in the opposite direction) has always weighed heavy on non-leaguers in Thurrock. But in the 1980s, when Britain started to open-up its economy and council house ownership changed the property landscape forever, a cocky swagger and self-confidence seemed to sweep across the Thames hinterland. As Thurrock started to benefit from the huge shopping village known as Lakeside, the area acquired a very different persona from the traditional dourness of Thameside Essex. Working class businessmen with a “few bob in their pocket” started to get interested in football.

Aveley FC – On the move soon?

In Aveley village, you turn into Ship Lane and drive for a few minutes to a site that used to be known as Bushy Bit, and latterly Thurrock Technical College. There’s now a hotel with a football ground attached to it. The club was originally known as Purfleet, although that village-cum-town, once renowned for being a beauty spot on the Thames, is some distance away.

Purfleet’s driving force was – and still is – Tommy South, a well known local figure. Tommy and Harry South acquired the derelict college and created the Thurrock Hotel, which is just a goal-kick away from the traffic hurtling down the A13, Thurrock’s signature road. It is the borough’s route 66.

The club was formed in 1985 and played in the Essex Senior League. With the indefatigable South – 24 hours spent at the ground – at the helm, Purfleet performed miracles to work their way through the lower levels of the non-league pyramid, often playing before miniscule crowds. The problem was that you really couldn’t walk to Purfleet’s ground, unless you wanted to risk your neck under the wheels of a suped-up Escort.

Ten years after formation, Purfleet were an established Isthmian Premier club, and by 2005-06, they were in the Conference South. They also featured on TV in the FA Cup and generally, were seen as a club punching above their weight. .It could never be sustained, given the small crowds and, dare I say, over-reliance on too few people to keep the club going.

Aveley – potential home of a new super club?

Purfleet became Thurrock as non-league restructured itself. This was a strange move and was bound to upset the club’s neighbours. In hindsight, it would be interesting to hear if anyone now regrets that decision. The renaming would have been more appropriate if Thurrock had created critical mass through a merger. For example, with Aveley Football Club just one and a half miles away, was there not a chance of a merger of the two clubs to create a Thurrock “super club”?

Aveley are right at the end of their village, almost in the Kennington estate of roads named after rivers – Usk, Severn, Tamar and Teviot – and a hefty swing of the golf club away from Belhus Park. Around 18 months ago, Aveley got the go-ahead for a new ground at the park, with the aim of starting 2015-16 away from Mill Road. It all seems to have gone quiet on the subject, but there has been some resistance to development in Thurrock. Earlier this year, another plan to build more than 500 homes in Aveley was rejected with the message that people in Thurrock are “sick and tired of over-development adding increasing strain to our infrastructure.”

Strangely, that development in Aveley was going to benefit Grays Athletic and not their current landlords Aveley. This would have provided the funding of a new ground at Treetops School for a club that is a classic boom and bust story. When I was young, nobody really watched the Blues and their Recreation Ground home was what was best described as “characterful”. But I recall the huge floodlights that towered over the tight terraced houses and chimney pots.

The club came alive in the 1980s when the Saxton twins, Jeff and Fred, led a team from the Athenian League right up to the Isthmian Premier. Grays were long-ball exponents and heavily criticised for it, but the Saxton’s made optimal use of the resources at their disposal and in Micky Welch, they had an outstanding striker.

Grays acquired a second wind and won promotion to the national Conference in 2005. The club was then under the leadership of Mickey Woodward, former chairman of Barkingside and the archetype “self made man”. To quote Grays fans, he was an “east end geezer made good”.

Woodward’s reign was full of drama and high ambition. Grays won the FA Trophy in 2005 and 2006 and finished third in the Conference. Grays’ Recreation Ground was refurbished to accommodate a higher level of football. Crowds went up to 1,500 and words like “Football League” entered the local dialogue.

But the zeal turned sour. Woodward, who had a “love-hate” relationship with the club’s fans, and had threatened to walk away on more than one occasion, left Grays in 2009. He had earlier taken over as manager. In 2010, Grays finished bottom of the Conference and lost their ground. The Rec was owned by Ron Billings, a farmer-come-property developer, and when he died, the family wanted to sell-up. Grays, who had effectively been bailed-out by Billings in the 1980s when they were at a very low ebb, found themselves without a ground after their 20-year lease had expired.

They had to quickly agree a groundshare and it was East Thurrock United who came to the rescue. Unfortunately, the size of the ground meant that Grays had to drop down to Isthmian League Division One North. It was a humbling experience – crowds quickly went below pre-Woodward era levels to around 200.

Since then, Grays have played at Rush Green, near Romford, and now Aveley. On paper, they are still Thurrock’s top club, but without a home of their own, Grays cannot build solid roots. That may change soon, for a few months ago, Grays announced that they had the money to build a new ground. This came after something of a public appeal for funds to ensure the club could move back to its home town. Interestingly, the Aveley development that was kicked-out by Thurrock Council was proposed by Mickey Woodward’s company.

As well as Aveley and Grays, East Thurrock United have been talking of acquiring a new ground. They only moved to Corringham in the late 1980s – I recall their first games at Rookery Hill when I lived in Stanford-Le-Hope. They’ve come a long way, but they look poised to move to Billet Lane in Stanford, presumably to be closer to a rail link.

East Thurrock – set for Billet Lane?

That leaves Tilbury, the poor relation of Thurrock football, although they do own their Chadfields ground. It has been a long time since the Dockers had anything much to cheer about. They did reach the FA Cup third round in 1977-78, losing 4-0 to Stoke City. There was a player named Nicky Smith who spent a long time (1975-1986) with the club and was always known as “the promising Nicky Smith”. And then there was Joe Dunwell, who also played for Dagenham.

Tilbury, as a town, benefitted from the closure of some of the Port of London’s docks. In the 1960s and 1970s, Tilbury became one of the biggest container ports in Europe. It was, and probably still is, a tough place and the home of the Tilbury Trojans, a skinhead gang that you didn’t want to be on the same train as if you were heading up to London Fenchurch Street.

Tilbury have struggled for a long time, hence they dipped into the Essex Senior League in 2005-06 for a single season. Their crowds are small, struggling to get above 100. It’s difficult to see what sort of future they have.

Ripe for a merger

Five teams in a relatively short space suggests that Thurrock is over-clubbed for the modern age. A couple of mergers could create two decent-sized clubs that split the borough. East Thurrock United and Tilbury could form one club and Aveley and Thurrock another. You can hear the protests already, but with crowds as low as they are, how many people really care about these clubs’ continued existence?

Distance in miles between clubs (Grays is taken as Grays, the town)

Population

Gate %

Aveley

ETU

Grays

Thurrock

Tilbury

Aveley

8,000

1.46

X

12

5.5

1.6

8

ETU

15,000*

1.13

12

X

8

10

8

Grays

36,000

0.59

5.5

8

X

4.8

3

Thurrock

12,000 +

0.84

1.6

10

4.8

X

8

Tilbury

12,000

0.59

8

8

3

8

X

*Combined population of Stanford-Le-Hope and Corringham + Purfleet

Grays, with a far bigger population than the other clubs, can stand alone quite comfortably, and with a new ground, could expect to pick-up more support than they currently enjoy.

With the right marketing and investment, the east can rise again

What next for Tilbury?

When you consider the clubs’ average gates versus population, only Aveley and East Thurrock are currently getting more than 1%. A meeting of minds may create the substance needed to compete. The only alternative is the inflated investment of a benefactor and as Thurrock’s clubs know, that can only be short-term and result in the type of rise and fall that [sadly] epitomises much of non-league football.

I said earlier that Thurrock is not part of London, but it is dangerously close to London and non-league clubs in London struggle to win over football fans that prefer to walk around with West Ham, Chelsea, Manchester United or Liverpool shirts on their back. It’s not all doom and gloom, though. Thurrock is a football area, make no mistake, and given the right [realistic] investment and strong marketing, the men from the Thames hinterland can rise again.

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